Why People Are Really Afraid of LGBT People Worldwide
Seun Shokunbi, Editor
As of 2024, conversion therapy is still legal in 19 states in America.
Psychology Today, the platform that published this information, emphasizes the severe mental health damage suffered by those subjected to these controversial so-called "therapies."
This practice is targeted toward LGBTQ youth, who face higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide compared to their heterosexual peers because of this. Conversion therapy is frequently carried out by people claiming religious or medical authority, especially some of whom lean on the notion that they’re acting out of morality.
Our question today is whether religion or dated psychological theories explain why people are really afraid of LGBTQ identities. What else is at the root of this fear? And what are governments and activists doing to address this fear?
Author and professor Jason Stanley has been talking about this subject for at least five years now. The rise of male authoritarians is the most common theme in his arguments.
In 2019 specifically, he shared that people project what he calls “sexual anxiety” onto minority groups as a tool to unite those who think social justice is eroding their power. For example, White, heteronormative groups will accuse LGBTQ, immigrant, and Black people of committing mass sexual assaults. They’ll then weaponize this hysteria to their advantage, especially when it helps them gain political or financial power.
Stanley cites evidence from a 1924 rally in New York City protesting against Black soldiers, to Sinclair Media Group (a conservative-leaning broadcast company) showing a historical pattern of scapegoating minorities for the rate of sexual crimes.
But it’s a mistake to think only White conservatives use sexual anxiety to gain influence and power.
In countries like Brazil, where the Catholic Church is dominant, families are coerced to use electroshock treatment and exorcisms to get rid of the LGBTQ spirit in their loved ones. This continues even though same-sex marriage in Brazil is legal, and the Brazilian Council of Psychologists explicitly banned these practices in 1999, AND the World Health Organization (or WHO) declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1990.
Some parishes even sponsor young people to study psychology to [QUOTE] “infiltrate the field of mental health” and attempt to rewrite professional recommendations around conversion therapy.
In Africa, Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act made headlines worldwide. Under this law, human rights organizations, healthcare providers, allies, and even family members offering support to members of the LGBTQ+ community risk legal punishment. Life imprisonment is one punishment for consensual same-sex relationships, and in extreme cases, the penalty escalates to the death sentence for what the government defines as “aggravated homosexuality.” The government has defended these measures as consistent with their cultural and societal values, values that emphasize men as heads of households and women as subordinate to them. There may be a correlation between this and the representation of women leaders. As of February 2024, 34 percent of Uganda’s parliament members are women though women are more than half of Uganda’s population.
Colloquially, you’ll hear people connect homophobia with someone repressing their homosexual desires. This belief goes as far back as the 1800s.
An Austrian doctor named Wilhelm Reich argued that sexual repression is a huge factor in how autocratic ideologies survive. According to him, allowing heterosexual women or queer people to freely express themselves sexually would undermine societal norms shaped around capitalism and patriarchy, which could lead to the dismantling of these structures.
Dictators or rich, wealthy oligarchs would NOT want that. Reich would eventually leave Stalin’s political party in 1933 after being pressured by party figureheads to revise his work to [QUOTE] “meet the more conservative, prudish ideas” they espoused.
So, is the goal to make people in positions of power less afraid of LGBTQ people? Can we convince those with privilege and might that harassing, torturing, or killing people with queer sexual orientations is cruel and unnecessary? Can this be achieved within a globally interconnected capitalistic system?
It took years of advocacy and pressure from human rights organizations in France to pass a new law banning conversion therapy. On January 25, 2022, the country’s National Assembly voted unanimously to give a prison sentence of up to two years and fines of 30,000 euros, for anyone convicted of carrying out conversion therapy. Those punishments increase to up to three years in prison and fines of 45,000 euros if the victim is a minor, or if the person receiving the therapy is considered part of a vulnerable group.
France and Brazil are the seventh and eighth largest capitalist economies in the world, respectively, and yet had very different outcomes in legally protecting LGBTQ communities. The largest capitalist economy, the United States, still leaves the decision on LGBTQ rights mainly to states, with inconsistent degrees of protection available.
Leave a comment below with your reactions to this information. Do you think it’s fair to tie LGBTQ rights to the economic systems in countries? What do you think activists and progressive politicians can or should do with this information to address sexual anxiety worldwide?
